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I'd like to know if there is any interest in exchanging queens for future breeder stock and / or drone mothers. I'm in central lower Michigan, and I'm particularaly interested in trading queens reared THIS year from strong, overwintered (absolute must) and un-medicated (highly preffered) NORTHERN (another must) stock. Race of bee is not critical. I have mostly italian / carniolan crosses.
My first batch of nice looking tiger-tails (bronze & black or gold & black stripes on queen's abdomen) hatched this week and hopefully the mating weather early next week will be good.

I'm just getting started raising queens this year. I may be interested some time in the future in an exchange. I'm hoping to catch some of the local feral bees. I have spotted some in two different locations, but have yet to catch a swarm of them. They are mostly black with a couple of thin dark reddish brown stripes on their abdomen. They seem hardy. All of them I've seen are obviously small and I assume they have been feral for a long time or they were always wild.

In the future I'd be interested. Would you be working with 4.9 cell sizing as this is part of my selection? You should talk to Kirk Webster of VT as he is working with dope free bees and has good northern stock.

Clay,
I'm not currently working with 4.9 mm, but it's something I'm considering for future use. Can a queen lay in 4.9 if she's been used to larger comb? I'm not sure if her abdomen could fit into the cell, but it may.

Yes the queens can lay in the smaller cells with no problem. Queens raised on pierrco (natural queen cells) do really well. I fashioned a dipping dowel for making wax cell cups from a queen cell off 5.0 cell sizing it was alittle bigger than 5/16 yet a little smaller than 3/8. The later being what is used today (I think?).

Jim wrote:
Can a queen lay in 4.9 if she's been used to larger comb? I'm not sure if her abdomen could fit into the cell, but it may.

Reply:
The queen can quite easily lay in smaller cells as she can stretch and twist her abdomen (tergits) quite well to reach places quite deeply! ;&gt; )

So don't worry. It's more man's phobic then the queens caring. Actually, the bees like the smaller better and in the spring actually look for the smallest they can find to work, and then do so again immediately upon swarming. Also do so when artificially nuc-ing and restarting with packages.

We are from Michigan too and do some queen rearing. Since I don't want to give out others specific email on here without their permission I will direct you to check the internet under "HIP" or Honeybee Improvement Program/Project.

HIP was started up here around '92 as an idea for a bunch of beekeepers to select a northern/mite free type of bee. Harbo's SMR stock can trace some of its roots back to HIP thru Dr. Hoopingarner before he retired from MSU. And as Clayton mentioned, K.Webster can be a source of northern stock, at one time he was a member of HIP and may still be. I had some of his stock by way of HIP in '97 and '98...recollection is that it is mainly an American Buckfast type.

You should be able to find the program on the net and it gives all of their current protocol. Then you can decide if it might interest you and get ahold of them.

Thanks for the information. I heard about HIP several years ago and just this past March, I ran into a HIP member at ANR Week down at MSU. Due to a computer crash, however, I lost his email address. Perhaps you know him. His name is Gary V***. (last name intentionally left blank). If you do know him, please forward his email address to me (jlittley@edzone.net).
I remember him saying that the I.I. queens that they got for breeders tended to be quite fragile...I guess that gave me second thoughts about joining, but I may re-consider. I have three good lines that I'm working with (open mated) that I'd like to keep going. One was a swarm that has been through at least one full year with no meds. or human intervention. I strongly suspect that the queen is in her second,if not third year. She's a beauty!
I'm willing to take the risk this year to go the "no meds." route. Many of the area beekeepers had very high losses although they medicated. The general consensus seems to be "why bother spending the money if they're just going to die anyway". Some are even resorting to blowing the bees and starting with packages in the spring, which I strongly oppose.
Feel free to write at my personal email address and tell me about your queen operation.